Sky Father
In comparative mythology, the sky father is a recurrent concept of a masculine sky deity who takes the position of patriarch within a pantheon and rules as king of the gods. He is closely associated with the earth mother and often conflated with the storm deity. He may assume the role of creator or exist as part of creation. In his original incarnation, the sky father figure was a god of clear, daylit skies, with storms and the nighttime sky reserved for other deities. This distinction is reflected by Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk-Literature, which has separate categories for "Sky-god" (A210), "Star-god" (A250), and "Storm-god" (A281). Often, daytime deities were associated with the land of the living or a celestial realm, while nighttime deities are associated with a chthonic netherworld. Dyḗus Pḥatḗr In Proto-Indo-European ("P.I.E.") mythology, the sky father deity was called Dyḗus Pḥatḗr (literally, "sky father" or "shining father"). Dyḗus is one of the most well-attested of all P.I.E. deities, with corollaries in numerous descendant mythologies, including those of the Greek, Roman, Germanic, Vedic, Baltic, and Anatolian peoples. As the pantheons of the individual Indo-European religions evolved, attributes of Dyḗus seem to have been redistributed to other deities. In Greek and Roman mythology, Dyḗus remained the chief god; however, in Vedic mythology, Dyḗus became an abstract deity, and his original attributes and dominance over other gods appear to have been transferred to others, such as Agni or Indra. Common Motifs Attributes * Associated with daylit skies * The progenitor and/or superior of other deities * An enforcer or upholder of fate, judgement, law, and order Symbols * Birds of prey, especially eagles and falcons * Trees notable for slow growth and permanence, such as the oak Indo-European Deities * [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiwaz_(Luwian_deity) Tiwaz] (Luwian: Tiwad-'') - the sun god of the Luwians, an ancient Anatolian ethnic group closely related to the Hittites. Tiwaz was etymological descendant of the Proto-Anatolian Sun god, ''*Diuod-'', and, ultimately, the P.I.E. Dyḗus. In Bronze Age texts, Tiwaz is often referred to as "Father" (Luwian: ''tatis) in the same manner that the P.I.E. "Dyḗus" was linked with "Pḥatḗr". His common epithet, "Tiwaz of the Oath", suggests an association with law and justice, similar to later Indo-European counterparts such as Jupiter and the Germanic Tiwaz. * Dyáuṣ Pitṛ́ (Vedic Sanskrit: द्यौष्पितृ) - the "Father Heaven" deity of the Vedic pantheon. By the time the core verses of the Rigveda were composed during the Late Bronze Age, the original Dyḗus had already been relegated to the role of a minor ancestral deity. He is mentioned in a small number of hymns, typically alongside the goddess Prithvi Mata ("Mother Earth"). The Sanskrit noun dyaús (when used without pitā́ or "father" descriptor) refers to the daylit sky and occurs frequently throughout the Rigveda. ** RV 1.89.4 - May the Wind waft to us that pleasant medicine, may Earth our Mother give it, and our Father Heaven, and the joy-giving stones that press the Soma's juice. ** RV 1.90.7 - Sweet be the night and sweet the dawns, sweet the terrestrial atmosphere; sweet be our Father Heaven to us. ** RV 1.164.33 - Dyáuṣ is my Father, my begetter: kinship is here. This great earth is my kin and Mother. ** RV 1.191.6 - Heaven is your Sire, your Mother Earth, Soma your Brother, Aditi your Sister: seeing all, unseen, keep still and dwell ye happily. ** RV 4.1.10 - Let Agni - for he knows the way - conduct us to all that he enjoys of God-sent riches, what all the Immortals have prepared with wisdom, Dyáuṣ, Sire, Begetter, raining down true blessings. ** RV 4.17.4 - Thy Father Dyáuṣ esteemed himself a hero: most noble was the work of Indra's Maker, his who begat the strong bolt's Lord who roareth, immovable like earth from her foundation. * Zeus (Greek: Ζεὺς) - * Sabazios (Greek: Σαβάζιος) - the horseman and sky father god of the Phrygians and Thracians. The ''-zios'' element in his name derives from P.I.E. dyḗus. ''Although the Greeks interpreted Sabazios as both Zeus and Dionysus, representations of him, even into Roman times, show him as a nomadic horseman god, wielding his characteristic staff of power and battling a chthonic serpent. * 'Jupiter' (Latin: ''Iūpiter) - the god of the sky and thunder, king of the Roman pantheon, and personification of the divine authority of Rome, Jupiter was the the chief guardian of the Roman state and a divine witness to oaths. Romans often equated Jupiter with his Greek counterpart, Zeus, and assigned to him many of the mythologies, genealogies, and symbols inherited from the Greek tradition, including the thunderbolt, the eagle, the bull, and the oak. * [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Týr Tiwaz] (Proto-Germanic: *Tīwaz) - a Germanic god associated with law, justice, and heroic glory. Also appears as Teiws (Gothic), Tīw (Old English), Zīo/Cyo (Old High German), and, most famously, the one-handed Týr (Norse). In the late Icelandic Eddas, Týr/Tīwaz is portrayed, alternately, as the son of Odin (Prose Edda) or of Hymir (Poetic Edda); however, the fact that his name is cognate to the P.I.E. Dyḗus suggests that Tīwaz was once considered the father of the gods and head of the pantheon. It has been proposed that that Tîwaz was eventually overtaken in popularity by Odin and Thor and demoted to the role of a minor war-deity. * Deivas (Proto-Baltic: *''Deivas'') - the supreme god of Baltic mythology and cognate with the P.I.E Dyḗus. Also appears as Dievs (Latvian), Dīvs (Latgalian), Deywis (Prussian), and Deivas (Yotvingian). The Baltic Deivas retained many of his Indo-European characteristics, including his heavenly residence, his association with celestial bodies, and his personification as a radiant being who acts as a judge or decider of fates. He could be called upon when striking a contract or making a vow, similar to his counterparts in other P.I.E. descendant cultures. In later regional mythologies, especially that of the Prussians and Lithuanians, Deivas takes on abstract, pantheistic attributes, functioning as a sort of deus otiosus of whom other more active deities were offspring, agents, or hypostases. Deivas was often referred to indirectly through the use of respectful epithets: "the First", "the Highest", "the Omnipotent", "god of gods", etc. In myths where Deivas manifests himself, he typically appears as an elderly sage or beggar. * Rod (Cyrillic: Род) - the primordial creator and supreme god in Slavic mythology, originally called by his Indo-European name, Deivos. Southern Slavs know this deity as Sud (literally, "judge"). According the 10th century Chronica Slavorum, the Slavs believed in a single God who begot all lesser spirits, which, "obeying the duties assigned to them, have sprung from his supreme God's blood and enjoy distinction in proportion to their nearness to the god of the gods." Rod can be alternatively characterized as the impersonal force of fate or destiny or an all-pervasive, omnipresent life force. ** Ancient Slavic culture demonstrates an affinity with Proto-Indo-Iranian religion, evident in the replacement of Dyḗus reflexes, the shift of the Indo-European descriptor for heavenly deities (Avestan daeva, Old Church Slavonic div; Proto-Indo-European *''deiwos'', "celestial", derived from Dyeus) to the designation of evil entities, and the parallel designation of gods by the term meaning both "wealth" and its "giver" (Avestan baga, Old Church Slavonic bog). Other Parallel Deities * Anu (Sumerian: AN, ������) - divine personification of the sky, supreme God, and ancestor of all the deities in ancient Mesopotamian religion. * Anshar (Babylonian: Anšar) - literally, "whole heaven"; a primordial deity from the Babylonian creation myth, 'Enûma Eliš', who sires Anu. * [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_(deity) El] (Ugaritic: ) - * Amun (Egyptian: ) - * Nut (Egyptian: ) - * Horus (Egyptian: ) - * Baalshamin (Aramaic: ) - * Uranus (Greek: Οὐρανός) - the primal Greek god personifying the sky, especially the night sky. In Ancient Greek literature, Uranus was the son and husband of Gaia. Uranus and Gaia were the parents of the first generation of Titans, and the ancestors of most of the Greek gods. * Ranginui (Māori: ) - the sky father of Māori mythology. Embraced the earth mother, Papatūānuku, and produced divine children. * Wākea (Hawaiian: ) - the sky father of Hawaiian mythology. * Native American deity * Tian (Mandarin: 天) - literally, "heaven" or "sky"; in indigenous Chinese religion, the supreme power reigning over lesser gods and human beings. The term tian may refer to a deity, to impersonal nature, or to both. In classical Chinese theology, tiān is the universal principle from which the cosmos continuously emerges. In Taoism, this principle is associated with light, the positive, and male attributes. Its opposing principle, di(地, literally "earth" or "land"), is associated with dark, the negative, and female attributes. Although in the early Zhou tian was conceived as an anthropomorphic, all-powerful deity, in later references tian is often no longer personalized. In this sense, tian can be likened to nature or to fate. In many cases, it is unclear which meaning of tian is being used. This ambiguity can be explained by the fact that Chinese philosophy was concerned less with defining the character of tian than with defining its relationship to humanity. Scholars generally agreed that tian was the source of moral law, but for centuries they debated whether tian responded to human pleas and rewarded and punished human actions or whether events merely followed the order and principles established by tian. ** As a god, tian is sometimes perceived to be an impersonal power in contrast to Shangdi (Chinese: 上帝; literally, “Supreme Ruler”), but the two are closely identified and the terms frequently used synonymously. Evidence suggests that tian originally referred to the sky while Shangdi referred to the Supreme Ancestor who resided there. The first mention of tian seems to have occurred early in the Zhou dynasty, and it is thought that tian assimilated Shangdi, the supreme god of the preceding Shang dynasty. Consorts If *Dyḗus Pḥatḗr is accompanied by a female consort, she is almost always an earth goddess. This is evident in the Vedic pairing of Dyáus Pitā and Prithvi Mater, the Roman pairing of Jupiter and Tellus Mater from Macrobius's Saturnalia, and the Norse pairing of Odin and Jörð. Odin is not a reflex of *''Dyḗus Pḥatḗr'', but his cult may have subsumed aspects of an earlier chief deity who was. This pairing may also be further attested in an Old English ploughing prayer and in the Greek pairings of Ouranos and Gaia and Zeus and Demeter. Starting in late 19th century, certain proponents of comparative religion, including Friedrich Engels, J. J. Bachofen, and James G. Frazer, posited that worship of a sky father was characteristic of nomadic peoples, and that worship of an earth mother similarly characterized farming peoples. This view was stylized as reflecting not only a conflict of nomadism vs. agriculturalism but of "patriarchy" vs. "matriarchy", and has blossomed into a late ideological in certain currents of feminist spirituality and feminist archaeology in the 1970s.